John Cleese Versus the Volcano

Besides the thousands of non-famous people who booked transatlantic flights this week, there is perhaps no demographic to suffer greater losses as a result of the Icelandic volcano attack than celebrities who are unable to secure last-minute Eurostar train reservations. Vanity Fair interviewee John Cleese, of Monty Python and the just as good—there, we said it!—Fawlty Towers fame, numbers among the afflicted. According to The Times (via Slate), Cleese was forced to take a $5,100 taxi from Oslo to Brussels so as to catch a train back to England. The comedian told the paper, “We checked every option, but there were no boats and no train tickets available. That’s when my fabulous assistant determined the easiest thing would be to take a taxi.” Those aforementioned bi-continental fliers had to just wait out what MSNBC characterized as “the biggest flight disruption since 9/11.” According to Bloomberg News, things are only getting cloudier, as it were: “As many as 15,000 flights may be lost in the region today, or about half the usual schedule, according to Brian Flynn, operations chief at Eurocontrol, which oversees regional air traffic. That’s up from 8,000 cancellations yesterday.” It’s almost as if the Earth is consciously trying to prevent humans from further damaging the air quality, except its secret move appears to be ... harming the air quality. In other words, this volcano is fighting fire with fire!